61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

In the case of Fides, five sub-categories of activity can be analytically identified:
1. Attempts to monopolise the sale of already confiscated, so-called «degenerate
art» to generate foreign exchange for the German Reich; 2. Attempts to divert
French Impressionists away from German museums; 3. Facilitating German art
dealers’ sales to dealers abroad; 4. Acquisition of cultural assets on behalf of
third parties at the «Jew auctions» («Judenauktionen»); and 5. Arranging the
transfer of cultural assets from the German Reich to cultural institutions in
Switzerland. There is documentary evidence of these individual initiatives, such
as the advertisements placed in the journal «Weltkunst» in 1938/39 in which
Fides offered its services to «foreign buyers for the export of all types of objets
d’art from Germany», or the approaches of its Art Department director, Franz
Seiler, to the Berlin Nationalgalerie in 1935, with impertinent proposals as to
which paintings the Gallery should dispose of. In a report dated November
1935, Eberhard Hanfstängl, Director of Berlin’s Nationalgalerie, noted, inter
alia: «Dr. Seiler listed all the works by these artists in the National-Galerie, in
other words, the most precious and irreplaceable foreign art possessions in the
Gallery». 16
How much looted art was deposited in banks could not be ascertained, due to
the poor sources available. There are virtually no files which might provide
information on the content of the locked safes. The forced opening of
«unclaimed» safes and deposit boxes under notarial supervision, both in the
immediate post-war period and in recent years, have brought very few pictures
to light. The ICE has not been able to carry out its own research on art collections
banks have begun to invest in, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. The
banks’ internal investigations in their own art collections did not reveal any
«looted paintings»: no «unclaimed paintings» were identified, however, some
artefacts previously held on deposit or on the basis of credit arrangements have
turned up. 17
The market and prices
Like any other market, the art market facilitated an exchange of ownership under
competitive conditions. The market could be a real or, in many cases, simply a
virtual territory in which sellers and buyers could meet and as well, it was a place
of exchange in kind. Given that some of the goods were of dubious origin, the
art market took on the character of a black market; however, respectability could
be achieved through resale, as only the intermediary had to be stated as provenance
thereafter. As in other markets, the art market of 1933–1945 had an
ambivalent character: on the one hand, it enabled persons to acquire the funds
they needed; on the other hand, the price was set by the ones who had the money,
rather than by those exposed to persecution and offering the goods. The
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